Monday, May 06, 2013

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Desire (2013) **

NR, 13 min.

Director: Adam Smith

Starring: Damian Lewis,
Shannyn Sossamon, Jordi Mollá

So I had a stupid idea. I
heard that Jaguar had made a short film to promote their new car, the F-TYPE. I
thought, “Hey! That might make a good Penny Thoughts entry!” Yeah, well, it’s a
car commercial. What can I say?

The truth is I’ve been
intrigued by this concept of making film quality advertisements for certain
products, like cars, ever since BMW first did it in 2001 with the Clive Owen
starrer “The Hire”. But, they’re rarely any good. They’re often too high
concept for their simplistic goals. In its essence the only thing this film was
made for was to sell a car. This one in particular includes one of the worst
inserted sales pitches I’ve seen. There’s a moment when its star, Damian Lewis
of “Homeland”, just lists off all the features of the car at gunpoint. Really?!
Not fans of the subtle approach at Jaguar. I suppose that makes sense when you
think about it.

There are a couple of funny
moments, like when the woman at the gas station asks for ten dollars in Spanish
and holds up her finger so Lewis can understand, or when Lewis parts a street marching
band concert by holding up his passport claiming that he’s British. For the
most part, though, this is pretty dry stuff. Even the photography holds only a
few really beautiful shots, and most of those are far overhead shots where you
really can’t see the car very well. Perhaps, that’s why they work, because they
drop the whole “this is a Jaguar” stance for those shots. It sure sounds like
an awesome car, though. Thank you, sound department.

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About Me

Andrew D. WellsAndrew is a professionally trained actor and stage director. He was a reporter for the daily newspaper The Marshall Democrat-News. He has been critiquing film since Mr. Lucas released the first of his "Star Wars" prequels in 1999. His reviews can also be seen atMarshall Democrat-News